National Network of Libraries of
Medicine
Pacific Northwest Region

Quarterly Report

February - April 2002

A. Network Programs

1. Health Professional Access to Information
Services

As part of a Public Health Document Delivery project
(funded at the end of the last contract, Nancy Griffin of
the Idaho Health Sciences Library (Idaho State
University) distributed a survey to public health
professionals in Idaho on information uses and needs; and
Cindy Cunningham of the Oregon Health & Science
University learned of the Web portal that the Oregon
State Library provides to state employees. Forty percent
of document delivery provided by the Oregon State Library
is to state public health employees.

One of the original objectives of this project was to
underwrite the costs of providing document delivery to
state public health staff, through the primary resource
libraries in 4 of the 5 states of the region (all except
Washington State). We now know that this objective runs
counter to existing relationships between state libraries
and state health departments. We have also learned that
state health department staff are, for the most part,
unaware of this service. It's also unclear how much of a
need there is for this service. Susan Barnes and Neil
Rambo, project contacts, began considering changing
project objectives-from document delivery to assessing
needs and planning appropriate services with state health
departments, state libraries, and resource libraries.

2. Assess Needs of Health Science
Librarians

Feedback received about the group subscription to
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins journals from Ovid for
25 libraries in the region has been very positive, with
librarians in the region indicating that they want to
pursue other group subscription opportunities.

Maryanne Blake conducted the 2002 PNC/MLA Continuing
Education survey. This annual survey has been conducted
in the region since 1983 and is a cooperative effort
between PNC/MLA and the PNRML. Nancy Press has been doing
the survey since its inception. This year, M. Blake, who
is on the PNC/MLA Professional Development Committee,
assumed responsibility for the survey. The leading topics
for desired CE offerings were: PDAs (Personal Digital
Assistants), current copyright issues, including what
role libraries should play in their institutions;
e-journal licensing, access and group purchasing issues;
and Internet document delivery. The results can be seen
at http://depts.washington.edu/pncmla/ce/02results.html.

3. Network Membership Program

S. Barnes and Michael Boer have been working with the
NLM DOCLINE Interface Review Team, which meets an average
of once per week.

NLM's introduction of the new library type of Public
made it necessary to edit the 17 network member and
affiliate member public library records for this region.
Records for 3 new affiliate members were added bringing
the total to 143 as of April 30. Total full members as of
April 30: 160. (Note: 3 of our DOCLINE libraries are not
full members because they are "borrow-only.")

4. Document Delivery

DOCLINE Interface Review Team (aka DIRT)
teleconferences continued during the quarter, with an
average of one per week. The meetings are focusing on the
DOCUSER component of DOCLINE in great detail. S. Barnes
has been chosen to communicate to the NN/LM staff (via
the NNLMALL email discussion list) about DIRT's work.

Three new DOCLINE libraries joined the network this
quarter: the libraries for the 3 state hospitals in
Washington State (Eastern State Hospital, Western State
Hospital, and Rainier School). Total of DOCLINE
participants in this region is now 163, three of which
are "borrow-only."

5. Resource Libraries

6. Communication

The Winter 2002 issue of the newsletter, Dragonfly,
was completed in March with five original articles. A new
section of the newsletter, Announcements, was initiated
with this issue. These are brief pieces that are
announced on PNRNews but need a longer shelf life than
one announcement on the e-mail list.

"I wanted you to know that the Internet
for School Nurses web site was the 6th most used OHSU
web page in 2001. I think that is totally cool! I just
talked to someone who works at the Beaverton Public
Library and she refers people to it all the time. She
is a nurse going to library school and said she's
referred nurses to it who have then referred it to
others."

An article based on presentations to rural nurses
(funded by an PNRML outreach project award) by Bob
Pringle, Director of Library Services at the
Intercollegiate College of Nursing, was published in the
Online Journal of Nursing Informatics. Pringle, R.
(January 2002). What Rural Nurses Hope to Find on the
Internet. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics (OJNI).
Vol. 6, No. 1. [Online]. Available at http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/nurs/ojni/article_part_i.htm.

An interview with Roy Sahali and N. Press, entitled
"Project Helps Native American Communities Get Online;
Tribal Connections Helps Address Health-Care
Disparities," appeared in the 2001 University of
Washington Academic Medical Center Dean's Report, which
was published in April, 2002
http://depts.washington.edu/drrpt/2001/outreach/tcp.html.

The Library Directions article was picked up and
highlighted for a day on the University of Washington's
home page, on Mar. 15.

N. Press was the co-host, with Heidi Sandstrom, for
the Consumer Health Coordinator teleconference on Feb.
12.

Cathy Burroughs, R. Sahali, and N. Press presented a
teleconference on Mar. 5 for all RML staff, and
representatives from Resource Libraries from the Four
Corners area, on community-based outreach. This was the
first all-RML teleconference in which NetMeeting was used
to show the presentation to others, along with the audio
narrative.

7. Regional Advisory Committee

8. Monitor region's programs

In response to a request from the National Library of
Medicine about special library services in the Pacific NW
for disabled people or people who are physically
challenged, N. Press surveyed the region's libraries, of
all kinds, using the library discussion lists for all
five states. N. Press summarized the results, presented
them on the discussion lists, and forwarded the results
to NLM.

9. User Feedback

10. Training Facility

11. NLM User/Non-User Needs Assessment

12. NLM GrantsLinda Milgrom was consulted by 9
individuals or groups planning to apply for NLM grants.
The new IADL grants generated the most interest.

13. Follow-up with NLM-funded Projects

N. Press arranged for and participated in an
evaluation of community health organizations' consumer
information policies and practices in Yakima, Washington,
on Feb. 1. The evaluation was carried out as part of
research being conducted by Dr. Karen Pettigrew and her
research associates at the University of Washington
Information School. The community health organizations
reviewed were those that participated in the Central
Washington Health Information Network project funded by
the PNRML in 2000.

Wallowa County Library won the Public Library
Association's Small and Rural Library award, based on
work funded in 2001 by the PNRML for a consumer health
information outreach project in Wallowa County-the
northeastern most county in Oregon. N. Press had
nominated Wallowa for this honor. The award was announced
in Feb. and will be presented at the 2002 ALA annual
meeting. The award was highlighted at the NLM booth at
the Public Library Association conference in Mar.

Julie McGowan and Karen Frederickson, both of Indiana
University, traveled to Seattle to meet with PNRML staff
regarding planning for the National Outreach Mapping
Center. C. Burroughs and N. Rambo met with McGowan and
Frederickson on Feb. 15. C. Burroughs and S. Fuller met
with them for an additional day.

N. Rambo participated in the Partners in Information
Access for Public Health Professionals steering committee
meeting at NLM, on Mar. 25.

N. Rambo met with Northwest Center for Public Health
Practice staff to plan the design and development of a
"digital library" resource to support local community
health assessment. The model for this resource will be
based on needs expressed by local community health
assessment coordinators in Washington State. The intent
is to develop the model to be generalized for use in
other settings.

1. Outreach to Health
Professional

L. Milgrom and S. Barnes visited the EPA (Region X)
library in Seattle. The library director, Olga
Shargorodska, had met PNRML staff at a PubMed training
session and was interested in projects of common
interest. L. Milgrom and S. Barnes discussed (and
demonstrated) DOCLINE, Loansome Doc, and NLM databases.
One result of the meeting was contact with an EPA staff
member who conducts TRI training sessions for community
groups, asking the PNRML to publicize her workshops.

M. Blake was invited to speak on finding ethnically
diverse and low-literacy resources on the Internet at a
workshop for health professionals serving families of
children with special health needs. The all-day workshop,
"Meeting the Cultural and Linguistic Needs of Families,"
was well attended by 40 public health nurses, health
educators, family resource coordinators and others. They
have a need for finding or developing materials for the
ethnically and linguistically diverse groups they
assist.

N. Press was selected by the Pacific Northwest
Regional Chapter of SOPHE to represent the chapter at a
CDCynergy train-the-trainer session at CDC in Feb. N.
Press will then be the CDCynergy trainer for the Pacific
Northwest on behalf of SOPHE. She was the only librarian
at the train-the-trainer session. CDCynergy is a program
for public health professionals that guides them through
52 steps of a communication intervention and offers
context-sensitive published information at each step.

N. Rambo taught a session of S. Fuller's Information
Access in Health Sciences course in the University of
Washington Information School. The session, on Feb. 28,
was on public health information needs, uses, and
resources.

Throughout the quarter, N. Rambo participated in
monthly faculty meetings of the Northwest Center for
Public Health Practice. One activity this quarter was
planning and coordinating several public health
informatics projects-some planned and others
underway-with existing and incoming funding from CDC and
HRSA.

2. Consumer Health Information
Services

Selected Indian Health Service (IHS) staff and
patients tested N. Press' easy-to-read Web resource of
health information, which she prepared at the request of
IHS, with input from the National Indian Education
Association, the National Alaska Native/American Indian
Nurses Association, and the Portland Area Indian Health
Board. N. Press and PNRML have proposed maintaining the
content of this resource, within the context of NN/LM
resources. IHS is considering copying the content
periodically from the NN/LM site to an IHS page, to be
wrapped within appropriate IHS templates, with credit
given to NN/LM. This proposal-essentially syndicating
NN/LM content for use by other organizations-is being
discussed by PNRML and the NNO.

N. Press was advisor and mentor for a University of
Washington Information School student in a directed
fieldwork project. Together they designed research on
consumer health thesauri on the Web. A paper was
prepared, entitled "Comparison of Consumer Health
Information Thesauri," which will be submitted for
publication. The paper compared the thesauri used in
Healthfinder, InteliHealth, MEDLINEplus, NOAH, and
WebMD.

N. Press was invited to present a 1-hour interview and
demonstration on how to find authoritative AIDS
information, for Multnomah Community TV in Portland,
Oregon. The program is Treatment Information Exchange,
produced by the International Foundation for Alternative
Research in AIDS (IFARA). Robert Mehnert, NLM public
information officer, referred IFARA to the PNR
office.

PNRML awarded a $500 mini-award to Steve Teich of
Oregon Health & Science University to exhibit and
participate in the annual meeting of the Oregon Academy
of Family Physicians. The meeting will be held in May
2002 in Bend, Oregon.

Megan Sety of the Center for Children with Special
Needs, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center,
Seattle, Washington, conducted a second workshop covering
basic Web searching skills, locating quality information
for families and patients, and evaluation of health Web
sites. A $500 mini-award also supported this project. An
Outreach Reporting Form is included in this report.

At the request of Janet Zipser, N. Press prepared a
presentation on network membership that was presented as
part of the NLM exhibit program at the Public Library
Association conference in Phoenix, in Mar. The
presentation is at http://nnlm.gov/pnr/services/netmembshow.ppt.

S. Barnes prepared a network membership sign-up form
for the same meeting.

4. Exhibits and Presentations at
Meetings

N. Press participated in NLM's exhibit at the Public
Library Association meeting in Phoenix, AZ March
13-15.

5. Technology Awareness and
Integration

The PNRML, the University of Washington Health
Sciences Library and the Washington Medical Librarians
Association (WMLA) cooperated to bring the MLA Satellite
Teleconference Program "Sync or Swim: Managing the Flood
of PDAs in Health Care" on Feb. 6, 2002. Thirty-five
people attended the broadcast.

6. Library Improvement

7. Connections

R. Sahali helped plan and exhibited at a conference
sponsored by the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians,
in Portland, Oregon, Feb. 11.[
He also attend an International Programs meeting in at
NLM Mar. 7-10 on Community Based Outreach.

Molly McGetrick (Gates Foundation funded and based in
New Mexico), R. Sahali, and N. Rambo attended a meeting
hosted by the Midcontinental RML (at the University of
Utah, Salt Lake City) on Apr. 19. S. Fuller joined the
meeting by conference call. The subject of the gathering
was cross-regional outreach to Native Americans.
Representatives from the 4 western RMLS and the Four
Corners Resource Libraries participated in the meeting.
Building on lessons learned from both the NLM- and Gates
Foundation-funded segments of the Tribal Connections
project, an action plan was developed that will ensure
adequate communication among all parties, sharing of
works in progress, and coordination of activities.

C. Enhancements

Tribal Connections, Phase 3 (funded by NLM Office of
Health Information Program Development)-After a review by
R. Sahali, 3 Phase 1 tribes were chosen for next phase
intervention: Samish (Washington State), Nez Perce
(Idaho), and Umatilla (Oregon). Project liaisons were
assigned, from among PNRML staff, to each tribe. R.
Sahali will serve as the team leader in each case. An
evaluator will round out each of the 3 teams. Joan
LaFrance, a Native American (Turtle Mountain band of the
Chippewa tribe) with extensive program evaluation
experience, particularly with tribes, will assist us with
this project. J. LaFrance will be assisted by Susan
Usitalo, a public health program evaluator. S. Usitalo
assisted C. Burroughs with the Tribal Connections Phase 1
evaluation.

Initial site visits to each tribe will be scheduled,
and regular team meetings with J. LaFrance and S. Usitalo
are planned. Planning is also underway for enhancements
to the Tribal Connections website.

D. NN/LM Web Service [Added Category]

We have acquired new hardware for the next generation
NN/LM Web server. The system that will become the home of
the new NN/LM Development site was brought online and M.
Boer is installing and testing software on it. Mar. 15
marked the 8th anniversary of the public debut of the
NN/LM Web site.

NN/LM Web Service:Visits per Month

Year

February

March

April

2002

89,303

97,313

95,795

2001

75,828

84,809

81,974

NN/LM Web Service:
/members/reports/ Transmitted

Year

February

March

April

2002

6,450

6,477

6,761

2001

8,253

8,933

7,434

E. Administration, Staff and Other [Added
Category]

M. Blake celebrated her 10th anniversary with the
NN/LM PNR on Feb. 2.

N. Rambo attended the MLA Board meeting in Chicago on
Feb. 21-23:

S. Fuller and N. Rambo participated in the inaugural
meeting of the University of Washington Rural Community
Partnerships Campus Advisory Committee, on Mar. 6. The UW
Office of Educational Partnerships and Learning
Technologies is organizing this interdisciplinary group
of representatives of programs targeting rural
communities, for the purpose of coordinating outreach
efforts and sharing lessons.

R. Sahali attended a presentation on Apr. 10 by Jeff
Blumenfeld, Partner, Gray, Cary, Ware & Freidenrich;
and former Justice Department trial lawyer in the case of
U.S. v. AT & T, Washington, D.C. The presenter has an
extensive understanding about the telecommunications
needs of rural under-served communities.

N. Press submitted her resignation, after having
served 23 years in the RML program-at Harvard for three
years, and at the University of Washington for 20 years.
She will be Library Director at Mars Hill Graduate School
in Bothell, Washington.